For years I have hauled my electronics gear all over the planet in Pelican shipping cases. They are the gold standard when you want your gear to get from point a to b in one piece. When I was in the Navy they shipped stuff by the truckload in pelican cases.

Now Pelican is taking the same shipping case technology and down sizing it to mobile device cases that can protect your phone and tablets. Over the past two weeks I have had my iPad Air 2 encased in a Pelican Voyager iPad Air Case, and I can tell you that I have no doubt that my device is as protected as it can be.

The case comes with soft inner shell to nestle your iPad in, with a rugged yet pliable exterior that protects the device edges and sides from impacts. The screen is slight recessed to protect the glass as well. The kickstand on the back of the case allows you to prop the device up for easy viewing.

The case has been designed, and tested to handle mil spec drops, shock absorption and deflect energy from impacts into the case and not the device. While the case is a little thicker than some plastic cases, this case was designed for folks that need an extra layer of protection yet is stylish enough that it would be out of place in a office environment. The buttons on your iPad are easy to manage through the inner pliable layer, and their is a non obstructing camera port.

The case comes with a lifetime guarantee, you break it they will replace the case. Retailing for around $80.00 with various retailers you cannot go wrong after all it’s made by the folks who set the gold standard in shipping cases and now mobile device cases.

I touched a nerve on the last show. Some great email comments and debate on the FCC actions. I also pay tribute to Leonard Nimoy aka Spock on his passing plus all the tech news you can handle. This is a feisty one folks strap in.

Blizzard Entertainment is about to enable World of Warcraft players to securely purchase gold and to use their gold to buy game time. Something new, called a WoW Token, will make it harder for the illegal gold sellers to find people to scam. Why bother with gold sellers when the WoW Token will safely enable a player to purchase gold?

The concept behind the WoW Token is not new. Eve Online uses a similar system called PLEX. Wildstar uses a similar system called C.R.E.D.D.. However, this is the first time that something like this will be available to World of Warcraft players.

How does the WoW Token work? A player that needs more gold will be able to buy a WoW Token from the in game shop. That person can then sell the WoW Token in a special portion of the in game Auction House for gold. The player will get a quote of how much gold they will receive if another player buys that WoW Token.

Need game time, but don’t have enough real-world currency to purchase it? A player in that situation can buy a WoW Token from a special portion of the in game Auction House. The player can then redeem the WoW Token for 30 days of game time.

The cost of the WoW Token is going to be set by Blizzard Entertainment based on an algorithm that considers supply and demand. That means that players won’t have to bid for a WoW Token (like they can for other Auction House items). It also means that individual players won’t be able to set the price for the WoW Token they want to sell on the Auction House.

Best of all, the WoW Tokens, once purchased, cannot be sold directly to another player. They will be account bound. This makes it impossible for third-party illegal gold sellers to buy up all the WoW Tokens on the Auction House in an attempt to make money from them.

I was somewhat surprised to learn that 50% of travel bookings made within 48 hours of departure are booked on a mobile device. On reflection, it’s perhaps not that surprising, given that the spontaneous decision to travel is likely to be followed up immediately, rather than waiting to get home to get the laptop out.

It’s with this opportunity in mind that accommodation site Booking.com has launched Booking Now, an instant booking app that can get a place to stay in as little as two taps. After a successful launch in the US and Canada, the app is now available in the UK for iOS devices with an Android version to follow. The app’s built-in intelligence, along with GPS, helps it choose the best properties based on your preferences from over 600,000 properties in 70,000 destinations.

“With the launch of Booking Now, we’re increasing our investment in mobile by leveraging our global scale, assets and partnerships to accommodate the growing number of customers who are booking reservations within two days or less of their stay,” said Darren Huston, Chief Executive Officer of Booking.com. “The new app puts users at the centre of the booking experience, drawing from our vast database of properties to meet their specific preferences at the very moment they need to book. Booking Now is designed to deliver a seamless mobile experience for spontaneous consumers, fitting perfectly into their multi-device, on-demand lifestyle.”

Booking Now personalises real-time search results based on the traveller profile created by each user when they first start to use the app. The profile indicates specific accommodation preferences, such as budget and options like parking, included breakfast and wifi. Users are then presented with the most relevant accommodation available based on profile and location. The traveller can then modify their choice of accommodation to suit their itinerary and the places that they want to see. With Booking Now’s predictive analytics, the more frequently customers use the app, the more personalised their recommended matches become. Additionally, as user’s swipe through the app, they can pin their top hotel choice to the map so they can see where the hotel is relative to their location or other attractions.

The Booking Now app can be downloaded from the relevant app stores – iOS only for now with Android coming soon.

Over the past 3 weeks I have been using a Dell XPS 13 provided by Dell as my primary laptop. Over the last couple of years I have switched between a Macbook and a Windows laptop.

I was honestly skeptical that I would like the smaller form factor as I have always had big screen laptops. In a very short time I have absolutely fallen in love with the Dell XPS. Let me share a little about the tech specs . The machine that Dell sent me again was the XPS 13 with an Intel 5th gen core processor, 8GB of ram, 256GB SSD Drive, backpack, transport sleeve & power companion. It came with Microsoft Office loaded and of course Windows 8.1

My first impression pulling it out of the box was wow this thing is lightweight weighing in @ 2.6 pounds, very sturdy with aluminium and composite materials . Boot up time was incredibly fast, and what really blew me away was the screen. The Dell team spared no expense in getting the monitor to have absolutely minimal edge distance from screen border to the edge of the lid.

Their engineering team stuffed a 13.3 inch display in what would normally be a 11 inch ultrabook form factor. The Dell XPS 13 is currently the smallest 13 inch laptop on the planet. A buddy of mine with a Macbook Air was really wowed with the screen resoltion and form factor. With 5.7 Million pixels the Quad HD+ display is 4.4 million more pixels than the MacBook Air.

In the past when I left the house I would pack up the laptop and the power supply which usually weighs as much as a laptop, the Dell XPS 13 power supply is another home run it’s not much bigger than a cell phone charger. Even as small as the charger is I started leaving the charger at home during the day after a trip to California. Here is my battery usage case. I spent 2+ hours at the departing airport on the XPS working due to a flight delay. I then used the laptop on the Aircraft WiFi for about 5 hours catching up on email, Google docs etc.. Then when I arrived at my hotel late in the evening, I checked email and did a lengthy Skype video call to my wife all the while on battery. I went to bed forgetting to plug in the laptop and charge it. Running a bit late in the morning, I left the hotel with the battery still having about 30% charge. I used the laptop on and off that day only reverting to charge it with the Dell Power Companion in the early evening. In summary the battery life is simply incredible I really do not know how they do it.

My usage of the laptop has largely been web based and a handful of applications including an Autocad drawing reader. I did do a little bit of Audio editing with Adobe Audition, and the laptop performed as I would expect for a Intel i5. If I was going to be doing any heavy video editing I would likely want the i7 version of the XPS. The team at Dell put a lot of thought into this laptop the keyboard is remarkable I do not say that lightly as I am pretty picky. I used both an external mouse and the trackpad and had no issues either way. Nothing to really add about the touch screen as it performs as advertised.

I have received a lot of compliments and questions asked about the XPS when I have been out in public it attracts attention. I feel very comfortable travelling with the laptop and feel that it will handle what I will be throwing at it. The transition to the smaller screen was not an issue with the incredible screen resolution. It sure makes my mobile bag much lighter leaving me room for other gear.

As configured my laptop specs out a $1140 prices start though at $799, you can get your own at one of these two fine online locations Dell or Microsoft. There is quite a back story to the Dell XPS that is a worth read and of course check out the XPS product page. This laptop has received a lot of awards and now I know why.

Disclaimer: Dell has provided for free the XPS and accessories for this review. All Geek News Central Reviews are done so under real world conditions and not in some lab. All opinions are those of the author.

Let’s face it, social media has become the main way we communicate with each other today. We have all seen posts from friends in good times but also in bad. When it comes to bad, it’s hard to say how bad things are, but places like Facebook can often be where troubled people reach out. Now Facebook intends to do something to help.

Over the next few weeks Facebook will be rolling out a new tool to allow users to flag posts made by someone they are concerned about.

The tool will allow users to report someone they think might be suicidal or hurt themselves in some way. After flagging the post, you will be given information on how to deal with the person, or let a trained team at Facebook get in touch with the person. You will be given the option to send message to the person, or a mutual friend or even talk to a Facebook team member to advise you on what to do next.

There are two major leaders in the smart watch world these days, and one hasn’t even released its product yet. Apple and Pebble both are in the news this week, getting everyone all excited about what’s to come in wearables.

Pebble launched a new Kickstarter this week to raise funds for its latest smart watch. One with color e-paper, longer battery life, and new timeline interface. They were able to raise $8 million in a few hours. Their new watch will be thinner and include a microphone for responding to messages or taking memos.

In the other corner, Apple’s Tim Cook, in an interview with the Telegraph, has dropped some more product info about what to expect from the Apple Watch.

In addition to getting all your messages and notifications, and being a pretty nice fashion accessory, the Apple Watch will be replacing your car key-fob, and have a lot of focus on health.

Cook said the watch will “tap” the wearer at intervals throughout the day to remind them to get up and go for a walk. It will also feature an incentive program to exercise. Rewards will be given as the user hits metabolic targets.

Apple’s watch event is scheduled for March 9 and the watch is expected to be available for purchase in April.

Earlier this week Google announced a policy change that would have users of its Blogger service remove any and all adult content. After some backlash, the search giant has changed its mind.

According to Techmeme, Google will only be cracking down on commercial porn content, and not the likes of sex bloggers and people making home made porn(…?) We’re not sure about that last one but regardless, Google must have realized that not ALL adult content is problematic. It seems as long as you’re not using the service to sell your porn, you should be in the clear.

“This week, we announced a change to Blogger’s porn policy. We’ve had a ton of feedback, in particular about the introduction of a retroactive change (some people have had accounts for 10+ years), but also about the negative impact on individuals who post sexually explicit content to express their identities.”

Adult bloggers will have to continue to mark their pages as having “adult content” so they can be sorted into the appropriate listings with the appropriate warnings.

More bad news for Uber, as the company said in a press release that 50,000 of their drivers may have had personal information stolen from the company’s databases in 2014.

In late 2014, we identified a one-time access of an Uber database by an unauthorized third party. A small percentage of current and former Uber driver partner names and driver’s license numbers were contained in the database. Immediately upon discovery we changed the access protocols for the database, removing the possibility of unauthorized access. We are notifying impacted drivers, but we have not received any reports of actual misuse of information as a result of this incident.